The end of AgfaPhoto?

In the last few weeks, two potential investors have shown interest in the company. After the Cerberus finance group withdrew from the bidding process a few days ago because of irreconcilable differences regarding brand rights and licenses, the employees and creditors are now pinning their hopes on the British Photo-Me Group, which, as things stand at present, wants to take over AgfaPhoto GmbH as a "grand solution" with all its business groups. But here, too, the question of licenses seems to be seriously endangering the acquisition.

The owner of the brand rights is still Agfa-Gevaert AG in Belgium. Agfa-Gevaert AG has surrendered the license for marketing the brand to the Agfa Holding company. In turn, the Agfa Holding company is demanding a purchase price from potential future users, which, depending on the scope of the usage rights, was said at the creditors’ meeting to be five million euros a year or a one-off payment of 40 million euros. It was apparently because of this 40 million euros that Cerberus broke off the purchasing negotiations with AgfaPhoto GmbH. The only other company showing an interest in AgfaPhoto is the Photo-Me Group. It seems that Photo-Me assumes that it will have to pay the five million euros a year to the Agfa Holding company at least during the next three years, but according to Managing Director, Hans-Gerd Jauch, and the provisional receiver, Dr. Andreas Ringstmeier, the size of this demand appears to be a significant obstacle to the acquisition. But even if Photo-Me and Agfa Holding do reach an agreement, the license fee would in any case reduce the purchase price.

In order to simplify the process and make take-over negotiations easier, Agfa-Gevaert AG has since terminated the license agreement with the Agfa Holding company. However, Agfa Holding disputes the legal effectiveness of this termination, and the matter will presumably have to be decided in the law courts.

Should no buyer have been found for AgfaPhoto GmbH by the weekend, the people responsible for the company will, according to Jauch, endeavor to sell parts of the company to "second-line investors". The prospects look good for the laboratory business, for which Fujifilm has been mentioned as being seriously interested, and the chemical site in Vaihingen. There was, however, a feeling of skepticism that anyone might be interested in the film and paper production activities.

No one can say at the moment what will happen to the employees if the company or parts of the company are dissolved. Although mention was made of setting up a second employment and qualification company, it is highly uncertain whether this will really happen.

The financing of this company – in addition to public money – must initially be provided by AgfaPhoto GmbH. Should it be unable to come up with the necessary sum, Agfa-Gevaert AG has undertaken to finance the amount. On the other hand, according to a representative of the Belgian company, the financing depends on "a number of expectations". Exactly what these expectations look like was not disclosed. At worst, the employment company would not be set up in the first place, which would basically mean that employees who did not go into the first employment company and instead worked for AgfaPhoto’s continuing existence would be punished for their trust and commitment.